The Fit's Gonna Hit the Shan

Tiny's hair is finally starting to grow back in. He had a full head of hair when he was born (the heartburn during pregnancy paid off), but it all fell out after just a couple of weeks. It's still got the charm of "old man" hair in the back and reminds me of Frank from the TV show "Everybody Loves Raymond". Part of me wants to just shave off the bottom part of his baldness, but realize I shouldn't. It will grow back... and it is... slowly...

His eyebrows are starting to darken and his eyes are changing, slightly, to a more brown/hazel appearance. Our hopes for a blue-eyed baby boy are fading with each day. Neither Kyle nor I have blue eyes, we just thought maybe our family genes would skip us and give him the dazzling sparklers. Oh well, he's just as cute with darker eyes.

Our little man is teetering on the brink of learning how to laugh. He smiles broadly at us and does a "huh-uh" sound. It's high-pitched and sounds like the start of a giggle. He just hasn't learned the follow-through. I am so excited at the prospect of his learning this wonderful baby skill. Baby giggles are the best! I tickle him at every chance I can, in hopes that he will bust an adorable gut.

He's rocking and trying to roll now, too. We will lay him on his back and he will rock himself from side to side. Tiny's little body will get most of the way rolled over, but his noggin will hold him back. I suppose it is larger than his body right now, so maybe it's heavy. We try to inspire his developing rolling abilities by placing Tiny on his stomach as often as we can. He is not too fond of the tummy time on the floor and would prefer to do that while laying on top of our stomachs and cooing at us. He just turned 14 weeks this past Friday, so I'm not in too much of a hurry to get him rolling. According to a child development book I skim, only half of babies can roll over by four months. So there is no need to push him, I only encourage.

This past week has been a really great week for Brady's maturation. He met his Uncle Jake for the first time and I was able to leave him with Jake for an hour or so at a time. He did not seem to care if neither of his parents were with him. It is refreshing to know that he is a calm baby even for people outside his immediate circle.

Tiny has recently learned to fall asleep on his own for naps in his crib in his own bedroom. We used to rock him to sleep in his bouncer with a pacifier when he needed a nap. Now, I've officially learned to watch him for signs of being tired. His threshold for alertness is 1 & 1/2 to 2 hours max. He is growing more able to stay awake for the longer stretches and sleeping for shorter spans. This is great for me. He officially seems to know that day is for play and night is for sleep. He can sleep eight hours at a time at night. He gets the bulk of his feedings early in the day and will eat every couple of hours before bedtime. I have learned to lay him down while he is still awake and happy. I notice if he blinks really slow and know that's a first signal of tiredness. If he starts to grab at his ears or ball his fists near his eyes, I know it's time to lay him down. He will usually also let out a little whimper. Especially if it coincides with the two-hour mark. He's been a tremendous sleeper for naps. His fussy time is shorter than ever. He fusses for maybe fifteen minutes a day. He's growing up so fast, I can hardly believe it.

Tiny is officially fitting into six month onesies. He seemed to totally skip over the three month sized clothes and he's only three and a half months old. I never really realized how fast babies really grow. There are some outfits that he never even got to wear. He just grew too fast! If our second baby is a boy, then it will be nice to still have new outfits for him. If the second little one is a girl, then the poor thing will be instant "tomboy", with or without her consent.

Our Brady is an active baby boy, bouncing in his chair and able to hold himself up for more time while he sits. His head is significantly less wobbly and he's so alert and communicative. He loves to "oooouuuuu" and "aaaah" and cough to get our attention. He does "super-fast-baby-kicks" with the help of his daddy and I have a feeling that will induce baby giggles in no time. I can not believe he has been a part of our family now for fourteen weeks. Sometimes it feels like he's been here forever and others it feels like just yesterday he was born. I still can't believe that someday in the future Brady will be on TV waving "Hi MOM", and that will be me. It is really quite an honor to have this role.

Delusional and Pregnant, God Help Us

Just when I think that I finally have it all figured out.. I find out that I really have no clue what the heck I am doing. I find myself frazzled a lot lately. Maybe it is because I want things to be ready. Maybe I am nesting. Maybe I'm just being a worrywart. Who knows. Maybe it's because I really want things to be easygoing and simple. I want answers and I want them now.

I want to know that our delivery will be paid for and that we won't have to mortgage our arms and legs to pay for it. I want to know that our boy will be healthy and safe. I want to know that after he is born we will have all of our child care options weighed and figured out. I want to know that there is a plan and that it will all go as we hope. I want it all. I'm preggers, hear me whine!

Life really stresses me out to no end lately. I try so hard to just push it all to the back of my mind. I guess that stress comes with the territory of bringing a new life to the world. Becoming a mom doesn't start at birth.. it starts at conception. Most of the time I am pretty laid back and Kyle is really good about not letting things weigh him down too much. That helps me to not worry quite so much. He helps me to laugh and we do try to do our best to stay on the light side of things. To not let our stresses get the best of us. It's working well so far. I think that Brady is going to have some pretty stellar parents... if I do say so myself. It is my blog, after all.

On a more pleasant note, we have our first hospital tour tomorrow night. I'm pretty excited to go. I have been picking the minds of knowledgeable new moms about what to expect from this never ending process of paperwork and appointments. The hospital tour will show us where we can park in the middle of the night if we have to. We will be shown where to get admitted, where the nursery is. I'm excited because this makes everything seem even more real. It also freaks me the heck out. This means this is REALLY happening. This kicking boy in my belly will be out soon! Three more months!! I can't believe it.

I'm on the downward side of the pregnancy slope now. I really wish I was unconventionally wealthy. This way, I can just sit at home and daydream about our baby. Eat all the chocolate I want to and watch baby shows on TLC. I will be so calm and collected. But that would make for a very boring pregnancy. What is there to learn in life if it all goes "as planned" or if everything is easy. I suppose this is all to help us to grow. We will figure things out and when we look back, we will think how easy it all was and what the heck were we so worried about? Yeah, I'm delusional...

Sixteen Weeks and Counting

Wow... I can not believe that I'm 24 weeks now. Our baby boy is due in 16 weeks. That's just four measly months! I am not ready for him to come any earlier than that, that is for sure! Everyday I feel him kick more and more. I can feel him doing jumping jacks and splits and whatever acrobatics a 6 month old fetus can think to do. It's really amazing and I'm never tired of waiting to feel his next move. His punches and kicks are stronger. I can feel him swirling when he rolls over. I find my baby very fascinating.. which I'm sure just makes me a regular mom.

I can't believe our boy will be here in four tiny months. I just can't believe it. I feel like I've already been pregnant forEVER, but at the same time, not long enough yet. I can't be more than half way through already??? I was starting to get nervous from tales of early babies lately, so I decided to look at the women in my family to see if I can get some reassurance that he will not be a super-early bird.

First, I thought of my own mom. But then I reminded myself that because I was her first born and was breech, she had to schedule Cesarean Sections for all of her babies. I guess more than twenty years ago, doctors figured it was easier to just repeat C Sections for following children than to risk complications with vaginal birth. Yeah, it's because I wanted to sit on my butt in the womb that I have no birthing reference from my mom.

So then I asked my Cuz (Grams) how her births went. Uncle Mike was two weeks late, my mom was a week early (the last time she will ever be early for something), and Uncles Stan and Dan were just about on time. That is reassuring. I feel that if delivery times can be planned from history, I have a safe shot at seeing our son when he's due. Cuz even made the prediction that he would be late. So we'll see.

I have heard that first babies are sometimes late babies. I'm not going to wish myself extra pain or uncomfort, I just want to know he will wait his full 40 weeks then come on time. I need all the time I can get to get ready for him. Cuz says that when he is born it will feel like he was never not here before. It will be so sweet. I will fall in love with him for sure. Not that I'm not already in love with him.

He's my active bugger and I love my private moments with him. When somene is boring me with some story they think I want to hear, I can just smile and know that my little boy is swirling around. He's having a great time listening to sounds and exploring his surroundings. I can smile knowing I know this inside. It's the magic of pregnancy. I can't believe I only have 16 more weeks left to feel this.

Yeah, at this rate, I can totally understand why there are crazy families out there who can't stop themselves from having more and more babies. Especially if they can afford them. 17 kids and counting. Yeah, I can understand them...

My Baby Likes Britney

My baby likes Britney.

I have heard from many people and have read in books that some of the sounds that baby can hear while in the womb can be used to comfort him when he's in the outside world. This is why they recommend that the father talks to the baby and the mom is told to read to her baby out loud. I've read stories where a woman would watch the same soap opera every afternoon. When her baby was born, she would find that as soon as the theme song came on to her favorite show, the baby was pacified and went to sleep.

All of these studies are well and good and I believe that they do have some weight. I just wonder if I'm doing any damage? I have read it's good to talk to the baby, and to laugh.. But I haven't really read that you should boogey down.

You see, I have a bad habit of having my own mini "concerts" in the car whenever I'm driving. I just got a hold of the new Britney Spears cd called "Circus". This is by no means an intellectual compilation full of thoughts and great ideas. This is a Pop album. It's so pop you could call it Bubblegum. But I can't stop listening to it! I love it! I'm addicted. I listen to it on my way to work and on my way home. I can't seem to find anything on the radio (coincidentally) and end up listening to it again, and again. I need therapy.

There is this one particular song that I really like the beat of. I turn it up pretty loud and put on my concert. Hey, at least when I have a Britney Spears concert I'm really singing. She's famous for lip syncing!! So anyway.. I have discovered that baby loves this particular song that I'm digging. It's called "Phonography". Sounds pretty innocent, right? Wrong.

Here are some of the lyrics:

"Let's talk about biology
Make believe you're next to me
Phonography, phonography
Talk that sexy talk to me
Better make sure that the line is green
Keep it confidential, you and me
Phonography, phonography
Dirty talk and call it phonography (Hey!)"

That sounds pretty raunchy, huh? It's definitely not the worst song I've ever sung to our boy... But it has such a great beat to it, it really seem to get him jamming. Especially first thing in the morning on the way to work!! He really gets into it! I can feel him swimming or punching or kicking, or jumping jacks.. Whatever he's doing in there. Kyle compared feeling him to what he imagines a bag of squirming worms would feel like. Ha!! I find that funnny, cuz it really does kind of feel like a soft bag of squiggly worms!

I know I can change the music I'm exposing my fetus to... But I don't want to. Like I said, I'm addicted to the cd. I wonder if I'll have to play the cd for his lullaby music? That would push it too far, wouldn't it? Time for lamo songs like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or this little lamb won't be sleeping without pulsating beats of "dirty talking phonography"!!

A kick in the gut never felt so good!

It was just barely six o'clock in the morning.

I had to wake up to get ready for work in just a half hour or so. I laid in bed, on my side, as usual, since I've heard it can be dangerous to sleep on my back and have avoided it as much as humanly possible (and boy, do my hips ache at night!!). Suddenly, I started to feel a rumbling in my stomach. Unlike any rumbling I've felt before. I was sure it was gonna produce the loudest trumpet fart ever recorded in any Guiness Book. I was happy I would have payback for Hub's "Bear Song" that kept me awake again last night.

Then, nothing happened. I felt the rumbling again. Like a wave of bubbles swirling around (picture the surf on the sand by the ocean). I was sure this was gonna produce something satisfying by way of major noise. Nope. Nothing. I put my hand on the lower side of my stomach and pressed. The rolling bubbles happened again.. Then I felt it: a ***THUMP*** on my hand. An actual ***THUMP***. I have been feeling the baby move internally for a while now. Feels more like someone is grasping around on my organs. I hadn't felt anything externally til this morning!! I was so excited!! I just couldn't believe it was actually happening!! Almost 21 weeks and it's really happening! This little boy is really real!! I've known he is real, it just hasn't really sunk in. I've just been getting a belly... and lots beer can do the same thing.

So I pushed and prodded on my belly to get the baby to move again. It was intoxicating! Usually when I poke and prod nothing happens. Now I can feel him respond to my hand!! It's so wonderful!! It's just so amazing to me that just a few hours earlier last night I could feel nothing. Then just overnight, I wake up, and there is a human in my belly that can kick and punch and swirl! And I can actually feel him!!

I delayed going to wake up Hubs to have him feel it, cuz I was afraid if I moved from my spot that baby would stop moving. So I soaked it up for a good thirty minutes and decided it would be fair to share. But of course, baby was done with his aerobics for the morning. Oh well, maybe next time.